When the anarchist, as the mouthpiece of the decaying strata of society, raises his voice in splendid indignation for "right," "justice," "equal rights," he is only groaning under the burden of his ignorance, which cannot understand _why_ he actually suffers,--what his poverty consists of--the poverty of life. 86 To bewail one's lot is always despicable: it is always the outcome of weakness. Whether one ascribes one's afflictions to others or to _one's self,_ it is all the same. The socialist does the former, the Christian, for instance, does the latter. That which is common to both attitudes, or rather that which is equally ignoble in them both, is the fact that somebody must be to _blame_ if one suffers--in short that the sufferer drugs himself with the honey of revenge to allay his anguish. 86 Why a Beyond, if it be not a means of splashing mud over a "Here," over this world? 87 An "altruistic" morality, a morality under which selfishness withers, is in all circumstances a bad sign. This is true of individuals and above all of nations. The best are lacking when selfishness begins to be lacking. Instinctively to select that which is harmful to one, to be _lured_ by "disinterested" motives,--these things almost provide the formula for decadence. "Not to have one's own interests at heart"--this is simply a moral fig-leaf concealing a very different fact, a physiological one, to wit:--"I no longer know how to find what is to my interest."... Disintegration of the instincts!--All is up with man when he becomes altruistic. 87